All posts tagged NDRC Launchpad

In June the commercial arm of the U.K. state broadcaster BBC Worldwide announced it was starting a mentoring program for digital startups. It is not alone. The Irish Times has its Digital Challenge offering desk space and support to five early-stage businesses.

Paid Content looks at what the benefits might be to startups and the newspaper from the project being run by incubator NDRC Launchpad and The Irish Times’ chief innovation officer Johnny Ryan who said:

“I remember being involved in a startup that had a great technology but could not get users. What we needed was something like this – it would have saved us going to VCs to get cash to buy ads/attention to secure eye balls.

“Large organisations like The Irish Times when I arrived six months ago, they have a very narrow bandwidth to work with startups. We needed to take some major steps internally to widen that, and to lower the barriers to outside ideas…

“The newspaper is hoping to get to use some of the products being developed during the programme, as it – like all publishers – faces its own migration challenges. And, doubtless, it can learn plenty from the upstarts.”

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